Oedipus and the Couple

This title consists of a diverse series of contributions and reflections on couples and the Oedipus complex from leading psychotherapists and psychoanalysts in the couples field. All contributors base their theories on a contemporary Kleinian/object-relations psychoanalytic viewpoint and this helps the reader feel that there is a basic underlying unity to facilitate meaningful links between the ideas and themes in different chapters. The chapters have been organized into three sections. Whilst united in the focus on the Oedipus situation, the individual styles and voices of the authors are very varied. The first three chapters are primarily theoretical. The second section comprises chapters that make use of artistic and cultural themes from the worlds of literature and film to explore Oedipal couple issues. The final section consists of chapters that are specifically clinical in their focus. The manifest focus in most chapters is on the couple, but there are variations on this theme.

Francis Grier

Series Editor's Preface , Introduction , On being able to be a couple: the importance of a "creative couple" in psychic life 1 , Reflective space in the intimate couple relationship: the "marital triangle" , The couple, their marriage, and Oedipus: or, problems come in twos and threes , Coming into one's own: the oedipus complex and the couple in late adolescence , Shadows of the parental couple: oedipal themes in Bergman's Fanny and Alexander , "It seemed to have to do with something else ..." , The painful truth , The oedipus complex as observed in work with couples and their children , Oedipus gets married: an investigation of a couple's shared oedipal drama , No Sex couples, catastrophic change, and the primal scene *